EPA Approves Kansas' List of Impaired Waters (KS)
Environmental News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Kansas City, Kan., August 13, 2010) - EPA
has approved Kansas’ 2010 list of impaired waters, which
removes 264 waters from the previous impaired waters list and adds
468 waters. This brings the total number of impaired waters in the
state to 1,387.
A water body is placed on the impaired waters
list when monitoring finds that pollutant levels prevent the lake,
river, or stream from attaining its beneficial uses. Beneficial
uses include human recreation, fish consumption, and maintaining
healthy aquatic life.
EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks said,
"The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s extensive
monitoring system helps locate waters in need of our attention. We
now must take action to clean them up. The Clean Water Act was
passed almost 40 years ago, and while we have made much progress in
the last 40 years, we still have a great deal of work to do to make
our waters safe and healthy.”
The impaired waters list helps the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) set priorities for
restoration activities to improve water quality in the coming
years. Once a water body is included on the impaired waters list,
development of a total maximum daily load (TMDL), a budget for
water pollution, is necessary. TMDLs set the maximum amount of a
pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water
quality standards. TMDLs also guide decision-making about how to
improve water quality by looking at all the different sources of
pollution.
"EPA is committed to working with KDHE and all
interested parties to develop other innovative tools to keep
pollutants out of the water," Brooks noted. "Kansas provides a
great opportunity for water quality improvement because it has
engaged citizens, creative leaders, and a real need for
improvement."
KDHE submitted its impaired waters list to EPA
for review and approval as required by the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The CWA requires EPA to review the state’s list of impaired
waters to determine if the state reasonably considered available
water quality–related data, and identified waters to be
listed.
EPA’s August 12, 2010, decision letter
provides a more detailed description of EPA’s review and the
basis for this action. The decision letter, including the 2010
impaired waters list, is available at http://epa.gov/region07/news_events/legal/